Rob Austin Suffers Setback At Donington

Rob Austin vowed to come back fighting after enduring a woeful weekend at Donington. The Worcestershire-based racer showed good promise in practice, finishing just three tenths of a second shy of the fastest time – a performance made all the more impressive by the fact that he set his fastest time on used tyres.

Austin continued to show this potential in qualifying, by setting the fastest first sector, moments before his engine let go. Despite this, he was still able to finish P8 with only six laps running under his belt in his privately-entered Audi.

After the team fitted a second engine, Austin was sent out again and ran solidly in the top ten despite an evident lack of power from the very beginning. However, six laps in, the problem from qualifying occurred again, and the second engine gave up as the first had. Because the team only had this one spare engine, this effectively ended the day's running for both Austin and the team, to their disappointment.

Austin said: “Sector one in qualifying shows we are capable, it's our one positive to take from this weekend. Donington changes everything! Myself and the team will go at Thruxton as hard as we can with a do or die, first or last mentality!”

Unfortunately, with a low budget, Thruxton might be the last weekend for the team. He continued: “We have to win races, I know we can and firmly believe we will!”